Saturday, 2 September 2017

A Shameless Plug (and some awful music)

A bit of a two-pronged post this week: obviously it will end
with some truly rotten music, but I have an ulterior motive for the theme.

My new book, David Bowie Made Me Gay: 100 Years of LGBT
Music, comes out here in the UK on
Thursday, September 7, and in late November in the US.

The book covers a century of LGBT people making records,
from the early pre-jazz years right up to the present day. It also documents
the struggle that LGBT people have had to endure over the last century to
achieve equality, and looks at how musicians manage in countries where it is
still illegal to be gay. I’m pretty proud of it. You can read more about it
HERE and – if you want – order now from Amazon and all of the usual outlets.

I’m heading out on tour to promote the book, and will be
appearing in Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, London, Bristol and
other towns and cities around the UK over the coming months. If you’re around
please pop by and say ‘hello’.

On Friday September 8 we’re having a special launch event at
the British Library, and I have to admit that I am excited beyond words. With
live music from Canadian country singer Drake Jensen – making his UK debut -
and London-based k anderson, I’ll also be joined by style icon, artist and the
‘French voice’ of Visage, Princess Julia and by journalist, former That’s
Life presenter and co-founder of LGBT
charity Stonewall, Simon Fanshawe. Copies of the book will be available on the
night, and there will be plenty of chance to have a chat afterwards. Tickets, if
you’re interested, are available now but are selling fast. Click HERE for more information.

So anyway, to the ‘music’.

During my research for the book I came across a fair amount
of mediocre songs, but it was while preparing the chapter on homophobia in
music that I came across the band Anal C***. I had, of course, heard of them before but I’d never actually heard them. Oh
dear.

Anal C*** was an American grindcore band formed in
Massachusetts in 1988. Known for their ‘controversial’ lyrics, the band
underwent several lineup changes, disbanded on at least two occasions and yet
somehow managed to release eight full-length studio albums as well as a number
of compilations and EPs. Early songs were usually no more than a few seconds
long, and their musical ‘themes’ included misogyny, homophobia, nazism,
antisemitism, racism and the like, with song titles such as You're Gay, The Internet Is Gay, You Were Pregnant So I Kicked You in the
Stomach, Hitler was a Sensitive Man and Eazy
E Got AIDS From Freddie Mercury.Lovely.

I’m sure that there are people who will insist that this was
all meant in jest, and that the band were merely taking the rise out of the
politically correct; that their entire career was simply one lone bad-taste
joke. I don’t particularly care either way: their songs are too pathetic to
offended. I simply offer you an opportunity to listen and make up your own
mind.

Singer Seth Putnam, hospitalised after a suicide attempt in
2004, died of a hear attack, aged just 43, in 2011. Here are Hitler was a Sensitive Man and Eazy E Got AIDS From Freddie Mercury. If you'd like to hear more (really?) then the whole album is available at Mr Weird and Wacky

AND NOW, THE NEWS...
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Good evening. Here's what's happening in the world of outsider music. Our
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